Anyone know of an Android App that will give Aurora alerts similar to how weather apps give alerts for thunderstorms/frost/etc? This is the 3rd Aurora in like 2 months up here in Alberta and it would be awesome to get warnings.

I don't know of an app, but this website offers alerts via twitter than can also go to your mobile. It's only for the UK so possibly not helpful for you in Alberta, but putting on here in case it's useful for UK readers.

You can have it alert you via twitter or email. Aurorawatch's alert was sent out at 5:05 pm Pacific (8:05 pm Eastern). Still not a lot of lead time, so you definitely want it sent to your phone. If it was sent to your email and you don't get email notification on your phone, you probably didn't see it until this morning. Alas for me, the skies in Southern California were overcast.

Not an Android app, nor for Canada. But UK readers might like to know that they can get email alerts from http://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/ [lancs.ac.uk] Not that they are a lot of use if it is cloudy, as it was last night.

If you rely on Slashdot for breaking news, then yes, it's a little late.

If you're interested in catching the Aurora, there are several online resources that can alert you in various ways when conditions are favorable. The best one I know of is SpaceWeather.com, though they charge for the alerting service. I'm just on their free mailing list and they sent me an email yesterday at about 4:30 pm with a warning that a large CME had struck the earth yesterday morning and to be alert for aurora that evening. T

Sorry pal,/. is not known for timeliness. Consider that all the material comes from us readers, who must first see it in other media and submit it, and then editors have to pick it from the "Firehose". Look at how long it takes since big news like Gadafi's death hit the big media and it shows up on/.'s front page.

True enough. On a related note, the word "epic" in the headline really does nothing for me. Maybe I'm anal but I don't think it's appropriate language to use in news reporting. "Large" or whatever would be sufficient. Or simply omitting the adjective entirely.

3 billion pounds of material traveling at 2000 miles/sec and blasting entire planets isn't epic for you ?
You have a pretty high standard for epic.

Correct. We do have a high standard of 'epic'. 3 billion pounds of material travelling at 2000 miles/sec is large, but it's not massively unusual and therefore not epic. Unfortunately you, and the mass media don't, so epic is being used whenever anyone gets slightly excited about anything these days.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/epic [thefreedictionary.com]

3.
heroic; majestic; impressively great: the epic events of the war.
Lighting up the planets northern hemisphere isn't impressive ? or majestic ?
The word you are looking for to describe a very very rare coronal mass ejection hitting the earth isn't epic its cataclysmic.

So by your definition, all auroras are epic?
This was a big aurora - no argument. But it's not as 'impressively great' as to be called 'epic' because auroras like this happen once every year-or-so (more now that we are approaching a solar maximum). If it was the biggest, most impressive aurora in about 50 years then maybe it could be described as epic, but it wasn't - in fact, there was one just a month ago: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2042428/Best-auroras-seen-Britain-thanks-huge-solar-f [dailymail.co.uk]

2000: the most powerful geomagnetic storm since 1989 sparked Northern Lights as far south as Florida
2001: There are many dates when Northern Lights were sighted as far south as Texas, Florida, Arizona--even Mexico
2002: Another date of note: April 19 when Northern Lights descended as far south as California
2003: Auroras appeared in Florida, Texas, Australia and many other places where they are seldom seen
2004: Northern Lights descended as far south as Calif

I've never worked auroral propagation but have read that it sounds like being underwater. On a side note, I didn't notice any disturbance in the force yesterday. Activity did seem to be down from the weekend but I still managed to work T32C again (CW and RTTY) and picked up TX7M (RTTY). Come on Sol, get busier!

I live in a rural area with little light pollution and where I can clearly see the milky way - and it was quite a sight. All I'll say is that when you see it the first time, unprepared as I was, it can be disconcerting and even alarming. You know something powerfully primitive is occurring, not normal; I imagine like an animal responding to a forest fire.

I think, by mentioning the Milky Way, (s)he was trying to emphasize how clear the viewing conditions normally are where (s)he lives; and that therefore the aurora was extremely vivid, given the lack of light pollution and whatnot.

I'm surprised that he was unable to read awfar's post that way. It seems pretty flippin' obvious. It is amazing how quickly people are able to set aside their own intelligence when the opportunity arises to insult another's.

I got up this morning, and my over-the-air reception of local stations was severely disrupted. I did however, pick up stations from 250 miles away in Saint Louis. Now I know that Saint Louis stations are only slightly less boring than Kansas City Stations... Thanks CME!

If those stations were on VHF, the aurora might have had something to do with it; however, if they're on UHF, it had nothing to do with it and it was most likely tropospheric ducting, which is common in the Midwest.

I guess this explains what I saw last night in SE Virginia. I happened to walk outside and look to the north and the sky was all red. It was very strange, glowing red. One of my neighbors was outside and I asked him if he saw it too, he did. Got my wife and kids out, they didn't last real long, there were streaks of dark that looked almost like straight lines running 'down' reddened sky. It was very odd, kinda creepy looking, and then a "shooting star", pretty long lasting one happened to streak down t

Now that's funny, I did not see any colors, but while talking with my cousin @ 7:30 PM I looked up and saw a object streak across the sky with a long trail behind it (I live north east of Atlanta, GA). He joked that it was the German satellite though I though it had crashed by now. My thought was alien invasion and finally, we have something to take our minds off the drivel coming from Washington on how they will make our lives better. Nothing like aliens to shake up the status quo.

Kinda funny. I was up in far north canada up until about 2 days ago, I got in around 10pm last night in Ontario, after an 11hr drive. Didn't see squat. While up north people said they saw them occasionally, but nope not while I was there. Not when I got back. Most of the time though, it's either raining or cloudy here when they're up. Ah well maybe there will be slim chance of seeing something tonight but I'm not holding my breath. Good thin I'm heading back up to the far northern wasteland for 10 we

Yesterday was the opening of the Mid-Atlantic Star Party near Robbins, NC.While we were getting gear set up yesterday afternoon someone had a C-11 with a white light filter and a Solarmax 60 riding piggy back.Both showed a TON of activity on the sun - filaments, sun spots, and some huge prominences. Little did we know we would get a solar show after dark!About 9:30 PM EDT the transparency was good but seeing was still soft. When we wondered who threw on a big light to the north of the field - all of a sud

Seriously, the telecomms are sloooowly moving on fiber-optic lines. Should have been serious starts on that years ago as a backup to satellites at the very least. One super-epic flare and kiss those satellites good bye, no matter how hardened they are, and they will take months if not years to completely replace. What do you do in the meantime? Oops?

On the plus side, though, all the spy sats in the world would also be fried. Always a silver lining....

The 'super-epic flare' was a subtle bit of sarcasm in regards to the 'epic flare' of the posted story. The flare was unusual but not something most familiar with CMEs would consider 'epic'. I suppose it was too subtle for you to pick up and thus I apologize. Insulting me over something that petty (and for my 'rant' that backups are a good thing?), however, is more an indication of your age being closer towards the single digits than mine.